Whew…
Today was a great day! I managed to solve some of my technical issues…. At least until I hit a repair shop in Vancouver. Abraham (one of the Directors of AGYA) also suggested I try a wire and Eureka! My high definition camera which previously has refused to transfer video to my computer has decided to give me a break! We have good quality film, a standard editing program and suddenly we have a major film project!
I also taught another photography class this evening. It was on the basic technical functions of digital cameras and an overview of the birth of photography. I even showed my class the FIRST ever photograph which took over 8 hours to expose and was done in 1827. Photography has clearly revolutionized our world. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to do a fraction of the things we do today. We rely on it for various forms of communication even scientific breakthroughs. Photography is also the foundation of film, we edit and produce film the same way millions of photographs are produced.
I am not a professional photographer but the way a camera fits in my hand is something I don’t understand. I love seeing an image of a person that looks EXACTLY the way I see them, doing an action that is so uniquely theirs no one would dare question its authenticity.
I am trying to infuse that same passion, that same tolerance and that same patience to these students and nothing makes me happier than hearing them UNDERSTAND what I am telling them. A student in my class told me today, I’ve always seen those shooting modes when I turn on a camera but I have never understood what it stood for.
A little knowledge goes a long way.
Technical Difficulties
This seems to be the first time where I am experiencing some interesting technical difficulties. Within the first week my sound and microphone have died making it a little tricky to do productive film editting. It was lucky that one of the other volunteers(Jenny) also staying at AGYA has a Mac and is willing to share her sound software. My computer has decided to choose the moments it switches on or off despite any work I may be doing on it.
The youth leaders are continuing to create their mini film videos, and our next photography workshop will be taking place on Thursday October 29, 2009. Some of the youth in the photography programming have already recieved their disposable cameras for 20 days behind the eyes of 20 Ugandan children. I have a few more left to give out before my 4 weeks runs out and I am back in Vancouver.
The film team is working on compiling a short film on the many talents present at AGYA and are looking at filming their last section before sitting down and working on the editting. Their camera angles and depth of shooting has gotten incredibly advanced and I can see their level of improvement just from last year. Next year I’ll barely be able to keep up with what they want to do! It is amazing what simply providing resources can do for a group of smart and dedicated youth.
It is raining almost every day here and it reminds me of Vancouver. The rain isn’t sudden, the sky darkens, the air shifts and slowly there is rain. You can sense it in the air well before it even happens.
I feel like I could share more with photographs then I can with words. Here are a few that you may enjoy. Two of the first ones are of the film crew before they start filming, people are missing. The last is of the Source of the Nile in Jinja, Uganda. We spent two beautiful days there and I enjoyed every moment…. regardless of the fact that I have forgotten how to relax.
One week later…
Good evening everyone. I am indeed in Kampala,, officially for the last week or so. My departure from Frankfurt was rather hectic and rushed but I arrived and spent my first few days recuperating… now I’m back to teaching almost daily, film editting skills to the youth leaders of AGYA and photography classes to AGYA members at large. The youth leaders within the last two days have succeeded in making 2 minute clips that have turned out brilliantly and if internet was a bit faster, I’d be more than thrilled to upload them. As my access is rather slow… I’ll have to wait until I return to Vancouver to do an official screening.
I am so thrilled to see again many of the youth I worked with last time and see them working hard to become leaders in their own right. Many of them have retained the information from PYM’s last trip in May and are excited to continue learning.
It’s almost unreal to be able to hear the call to prayer from the mosque 5 times a day and simultaneously hear members of the church practicing their songs for Sunday service. The Ugandans for the most part are some of the most religiously tolerant people I have seen in a long while. There is much respect for spirtuality and the way you celebrate that spirituality is entirely up to the individual practicing.
Don Baker from LOVE (Leave Out Violence National) has been here the last few days and will stay the rest of the week imparting some of his photography skills to the youth at AGYA. Already the simplicity of his first presentation have changed the way some of the youth attending the photography class have interpreted the way they take their photographs.
The sand is just as red, the sun just as hot, the people just as warm and welcoming and my life just as it should be.
Many thanks to those that continue reading and supporting the growth and development of such an important project and partnership with Point Youth Media and AGYA. These are youth that are certainly deserving of all the resources we can offer to donate.
Much love,
Hawa
Farewell Europe…
Three weeks in Germany, Holland and Italy and I’m pretty much okay to move on. Nothing major gained or lost. I met some fascinating people but for the most part I feel blessed to have grown up in Vancouver which is pretty darn liberal compared to the Christian-based government system of Germany, the silence of Holland and the systemic racism that penetrates Italian’s political system.
I’ve been horrified by the way immigrants, migrants and asylum seekers are treated here. Sub-saharan Africans have been coming to places in Italy and moving through parts of Europe in an effort to leave behind lives of turbulence in refugee camps, poverty etc… they arrive via boat, dangerously overcrowded boats, some of which sink at sea. They then remain in transit in places like Napoli, Italy and Greece where they plan to head into Germany or Holland or further up north to claim asylum. I’ve met numerous Somali youth that have fled the fighting, poverty or are simply looking for further advancement opportunities that are from Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Their stories are painful to listen to especially when they tell you of the handful of people that survive from a full boat. Their bodies cannot be recovered lost forever to sea… and their parents and relatives are told that they have died.
The Italian Prime Minister is a jerk, he has created tough immigration policies where anyone caught of trying to come to Italy specifically from Africa is placed into a “identification and explusion” centre and he has HUGE favor amongst the Italian people… who argue that bringing “these people” to “their country” removes THEIR jobs. He uses the same logic used to justify slavery and is also currently being used to justify harsh immigration laws between Mexico and the USA. I’m so bothered by what I am seeing here.
Calais is a town located in France closely located to their border with Britian. There is a migrant camp there called The Jungle where somewhere around 1500 people live looking to enter Britain, it was just recently shut down and migrants (mostly youth) arrested and are now being held in detention centres.
This is what I have realized. Many European countries refuse to give jobs to people that are not “French” or “Italian” another fancy name for those who are not white folks. I walked the streets of Milan, Italy and was sworn at frequently and loudly in Italian, sometimes being told to “go back to where I come from”, or “stop taking our jobs”. There is a deep systemic racism that exists in many of these European countries that is still very much overt which is a different attitude than the undercover racism I usually see within Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. I can understand why migrants would rather live in England where there seems to be greater opportunity for racialized people as well as people of numerous religions to co-exist. It is better than the alternate, living in Germany restricted to social assistance and never given the opportunity to study, work and grow.
So needless to say I haven’t really enjoyed my time while in transit and I am thrilled to be heading to Uganda in the next few days. The indifference of Europe is no match to the warmth and grace of Africa.
Happy Mama Afrika
Sitting here this Tuesday afternoon, I finally have a chance after 3 weeks of getting back into my schedules and getting some much needed sleep to scour my pictures. And I find myself missing my film team, and Mama Afrika with a great deal of passion. It was there that things were made simple, that days were spent in conversation in the sun and life was valued as precious. The rigid schedule I find myself in just weeks after returning was the same way I was loath to return to. Scheduled work days, scheduled holidays, scheduled appointments. The picture above encompasses my feelings perfectly.
This is Happy, one of the brilliant young women I had the honor of meeting during my time in Uganda. She was a participant of PYM’s 20 days behind the eyes of 20 Ugandan children as well as the main actress for the film project. It was in fact, her story that the youth decided to showcase in the film.
Her name described her personality to a Tee. Happy could be found the majority of the time with a great big grin on her face, sharing her stories of her life, a funny moment that had happened in her day, or just being happy. Her story isn’t an easy thing to listen to with a smile, but she took me through the moments, sometimes with tears, other times with a quick burst of laughter at a particular moment she delighted in remembering. It was a startling contrast. Living in a primarily single parent home, with a mother frequently sick and unable to work. Happy was burdened with the role of adult, as so many of these young girls often are. She learned quickly the meaning of reality and recounts incidents where even as a child she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to get a meal that day.
Happy is currently living in Kampala, Uganda with a heart condition and is struggling to finish her last year of school. She works in the community via the Bavubuka House, assisting with the small children and participating in the programming that occurs there. I spent four weeks with her and her final words came in the form of a request, “please don’t forget me”.
I never will.
Coming to you live
I woke up this morning I realized I have a little over two weeks to finish what I came here to start, and frantically see as much of the city and surrounding regions as possible.
I found a couple more youth who are participating in the disposable camera workshop and they are as excited as I am that they have cameras to play with. I came up with a last minute project here after watching the positive results that stem from playing around with the video project I am doing. The idea was sparked by our GoGIrls Film Retreat, I am having 6-10 of the youth create their own film, anything from scriptwriting to sound and lighting, take on specific roles in order to get it done and have the raw footage handed to me by the end of the week. They will spend Saturday and Sunday filming, setting up shots, creating sets, dialoguing with other youth, storyboarding, checking the sound etc. etc. This came from them, they asked for it and because the resources are available to me here to be able to provide the workshop and some of the skills why not? Get ready to see some incredible films ladies and gents. I’ll be taking the footage back with me in order to edit with the sounds they’ve chosen so that when Nasra returns in December to do the second phase, I will be able to send the tape/DVD with her so they can see the finished product.
My goal for next year is to set up some heavy duty production software so that they can film and edit their own stuff. It would be great to have some professional filmmakers come on board and do one week workshops on their specialities – special effects makeup/camera etc. You know what I mean.
I’m a fireball of energy here, as long as these youth have suggestions and we can get the materials here we’re doing it all. The young ladies finished one of the art workshops which I facilitated. And the power in the words they used and the situations and stories they shared was heady. That was the moment where I was reminded of what I came here to do. That was empowerment, the discussion and dialogue they were participating in made them active members of their society and for young women in a society where they are often not seen there was incredible power in being part of that circle.
I want to put up pictures but there is difficulty in terms of internet access and speed to do more than write a few words to try and explain what I am up to. Let’s hope that when I return those pictures will go up with startling quickness.
Two weeks, and I wish I was staying a lifetime.
Sitting at Webcity
Picture of mother and her young daughter in Ksenyi
OGAMBACHI – means hey what’s up.
I didn’t have a post ready to share with you all today but since the opportunity for internet usage came up (amazing internet usuage by the way) I thought I’d take a few moments to share. I’ve spent the last little bit checking out my surroundings, finding out more about the community I’m staying in and playing with any and all kids I can find. I’ve found a few more girls for the project and while I know their stories well enough to share them with you, I don’t have the time now to go into the details. Their names are Sarah and May and their stories are incredibly touching, not only because of the hardships they have managed to live through, but because of the experiences that have forced them to grow up far too fast.
My time in Uganda feels short, there are many stories, so many faces of people whos stories that we SHOULD know, that we SHOULD hear and there is barely enough time for me to capture them all on film.
I’ve been teaching the kids how to use the video camera as well as the digital camera and they are surpassing me in terms of talent. Their pictures are stunning, where I would take a far away shot they want the opportunity to get as up close and personal with their friends so they can properly see their faces. Once I start posting up these pictures, I think everyone will be crazy surprised.
I must admit my grasp of the language is not all that great, I’ve been learning, everyones been teaching me but I’m not picking up as well as I’d like. I’m not all that worried about it, I’m sure I will be back so I’m taking back English-Luganda books that I can study while I’m back in Vancouver.
So anyway 8 minutes to go.
I went into the ghetto of Kseinya (spelling may be incorrect) today. This is one of the largest ghettos in all of Uganda. The situations that people are finding themselves in are more than what I would normally expect, its teaching me a lot about my own privilege and responsibilities as a global citizen. A woman I met, once I told her my name, pegged me as Somalian and invited me to break my fast with her. I let her know I wasn’t fasting. But the sheer generosity of everyone here is overwhelming. What is mine is yours, as long as there is enough everyone is more than welcome to share. That’s the power of Africa.
Art holds so much power here. I’m using what time I have now to expand and work on that.
Anyways, I hope my 4 minute garbled blog made some sense to y’alls. The kids are amazing, full of life and energy and I’m happy to be here.
Hawa
HEY!
I have met the first of twenty youth to participate in 20 days behind the eyes of 20 Ugandan Children. Her name is Bushira Masiko and she grew up in the village of Byeyoberere. After the death of her mother in her early years, Bushira was left to fend for herself and her father doing anything from cleaning to buying produce to cooking their meals while still attending school. Soon after her father remarried and her stepmother instantly disliked Bushira because she was his daughter from a previous marriage. Bushira is teary-eyed as she tells me this story having had suffered abuse at her stepmother’s hands. Her father was unaware of this, believing only the words of his new wife. After some time, she is forced out of the house and flees into Nankulabye, one of the fiercest ghettos within the city of Kampala. She begins living with a friend where there are 15 co-ed youth sharing a small single room containing two beds. They are sleeping 6 or 7 to a bed with the remainder of them sleeping on the cramped floor space. Bushira takes me to her former neighbourhood delighted to visit old friends and show me where she is from. Many of these girls have been forced to enter the sex trade in order to survive, an option Bushira tells me was available to her but one she wasn’t willing to take. Our journey through her neighbourhood is through rough terrain, partially broken houses and distrustful faces. Bushira navigates this road a few times a month to come and visit those who she used to live with. Bushira now lives at the Bavubuka House acting as one of the caretakers.
What strikes me most about Bushira is the hope and determination I see shining through her eyes and the innocence months of living in the ghetto hasn’t taken away from her. She believes in the core of herself, believes that what she wants will happen as long as she works hard enough. It is this perseverance that others within the ghetto saw as they fed, clothed and watched out for her so she didn’t have to enter the sex trade. It is this perseverance that Bryan and Abraham, caretakers of Bavubuka, saw when they brought her to live at the house. Upon the evening of my arrival, before I had learned her story she told me that she wanted to be a lawyer, my surprise at her words prompted me to ask her to tell me her story. When I remind her of her words days later, she smiles and nods. She wants to return to school and wants to study law. When I ask her why, she tells me that she wants to speak for those who have no one to speak for them. How many lawyers in Vancouver do you know that have said the same?
ART WORKSHOP
I did my first art workshop on Saturday. It was more of a get to know you for the kids as well as myself. I asked them to draw their homes and their families. I wanted to have them present them to one another and to me just to begin some dialogue and conversation but with the language barrier and translators it was a bit tough. So most of the kids drew them, talked amongst their partners and gave them to me with shy smiles. It would be amazing to be able to have enough disposable to hand them out at random, to see what these 5 year old eyes see that I may miss. My only regret is that I cannot grasp Luganda quick enough.
The second art workshop was done on Sunday and the kids were asked to draw what impressed them within their homes. There is this sense of excitement whenever art supplies come out, if there was a way to harness that energy and have them focus into particular projects there could be some great results. There is a real need for more supplies, what I brought seemed to be enough but in comparison to the number of kids that arrive that want to participate it is barely enough to sustain the ten arts workshops I had planned to hold.
The disposable camera workshop is much of the same. I am trying to work with each of the youth participating but when the other kids see the cameras come out they ask if they can have one too. They have been taking most of the pictures I’ve posted as well as doing the video footage, they pick up fast and the footage and pictures they are taking are epic. They want pictures of themselves and their friends and do these great close up shots. I’ve had to tell some youth I can’t have them work with the disposable cameras because of the media release forms they have to sign, they can’t sign because they are too young and their parents are otherwise occupied.
OTHER NEWS
I arrived on Wednesday September 17, 2008 … I think. The time differences really messed with my mind and I still don’t know when I arrived, what time it is in Vancouver. I am aware of what day it is here however. My travel was pretty much exhausting, 30 hours on a plane is more than a little insane. And I’m used to sleeping on planes, but this was much too long to sleep for very long. The first leg of the journey was from Toronto to Dubai for just over 13 hours. My layover in Dubai was 12 hours where the airline put me up in a comfy room – where I crashed the full 12 hours. The next part of the journey from Dubai to Entebbe came with a stop to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which was roughly 8 hours. I’m really not looking forward to the trip back.
I am currently staying at the Bavubuka House run by the Bavubuka Foundation. The Bavubuka Foundation is a nonprofit organization that believes connecting youth with music and the arts can transform lives and unify diverse communities. The foundation is slowly but surely becoming a staple of the Kampala community. Kids of all ages arrive here to participate in a number of different initiatives from music to sports. When walking in downtown Kampala, Bryan and Abraham (Bavubuka House caretakers) wearing their Bavubuka shirts, were asked about what activities were going on this week. I saw the evidence of the positive message it is sending to Ugandan youth on Saturday. Saturday afternoon the courtyard was filled with young faces, playing soccer/football and participating in art activities. The youth know that they are welcome here and have complete ownership over the space.
I’ve spend the last few days exploring and looking around the villages (which in terms of proximity could be compared to the suburbs of Vancouver) which include open food markets, homes and other community gathering places. The lush green to Kampala is stunning and completely beautiful. I find that all the propaganda I’ve been fed about Africa ruined my perspective upon my arrival. Uganda has so much beauty it is stunning. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not staying a jungle, the Bavubuka House has hot running water, a beautiful courtyard, a fully functioning bathroom and a comfortable bed. I’m pretty much living in luxury here. And the reality is, if I were to take a mat outside (along with a mosquito net) I would be just as comfortable. Markets are convenient to get to, people are friendly(as long as I’m not carrying my video camera) and I’m learning more than I think I’ve ever learned before. I’m not living life watching the clock, I can spend an entire day walking and hearing another story focussing all my attention on the person who is willing to share.
I have so much I want to share but it would take pages and pages of writing and it still wouldn’t be enough. The video footage is amazing, the photos are stunning (check out my flickr link over to your right hand side) and the people are resilient.
More to come,
Hawa Mire
p.s. My internet access is spotty at best, so please leave me a comment or email me at hawa_mire@yahoo.ca and I will try and get back to you as soon as possible.
Simply Uncanny
I’ve spent the last two days in Toronto with my dad’s side of the family. As the beginning of my trip, I think this part of my journey has really helped me make the connections between my personal desire to go back to Africa and my family’s impact on that decision.
I am privileged. More than privileged to be able to make a single decision to allows me to do what it is that I want. My mother’s journey to Canada and into single motherhood is an extremely powerful story, and the strength and determination I have been graced with are the byproduct of her hard work and dedication to her family. That dedication that made her stronger than anyone I know. She can only dream of going back, a dream whose reality is steeped in the knowledge that she still has children to raise here in Canada.
Of my family here in Toronto, it is my grandmother that is the most driven to return as well. And also the one least likely to be able to. Her story is rough, leaving you to wonder how she survived her journey to Europe, and eventually Canada. I’ve spent the last two days simply listening to her tell me of travels, and (wherever possible) filmed her telling of her journey.
Launch Off!
At the airport and completely excited (and completely scared) that this trip is finally taking place. I always get a little nervous before the take-off point which turns into complete boredom by the time I am in the air for a few hours. The point is… 2 more days until Uganda. This trip is such a privilege.
Anyway no time to chat, my laptop battery is dying. More tommorrow.
Love,
Hawa
